Ellen von Unwerth

A note to all the ladies trying to lose that butt before bikini season is officially on: maybe you don’t have to after all. At least not if it resembles the back side of any of the women featured in Taschen’s “The Big Butt Book,” an ode to our “awe, fantasy and slavish devotion” to…

NY Fashion Week is good timing for Taschen’s release of “Fräulein,” the 482-page trip through Ellen von Unwerth’s erotic “female fantasy land.” A model herself for the first decade of her career, Unwerth gained notoriety only when she stepped behind the lens. Her photography revisits past decades from the silent film era to the 1950s, and is often set in a bedroom, boudoir or late-night Parisian cafe-cabaret. She has been compared to Helmut Newton for her portrayal of women as powerful, strong and sexually aggressive, though her propensity for fetish, domination, whips, chains, strappy lingerie, high heels, lots of makeup and very little clothing goes somewhat beyond even Newton’s scope.